There's an article in The Post about Ohio wanting to pass a law requiring "Cursive" handwriting be taught in schools.

This has been a real hot button topic here in New Jersey.

The attitude in a lot of school districts is that kids do everything on keyboards so why bother teaching "cursive".
Other schools,especially in more suburban areas still teach it.

Most of the parents still want it taught.

I know at FDU the quality of handwriting,including calculations, from the majority of students is disgraceful.

Just wondered what the people on here think.

A friend of mine is a teacher.
He was talking about the value of teaching "cursive".

One thing he said that surprised me was that kids who can't write "cursive" have trouble reading it.

Why would this not be taught in school?

On a micro level, it's got to help people learn the alphabet.


More intuitively, I agree that pen or pencil to paper seems to make one organize one's thoughts better. One learns more than just to write words.



I went to school in Shaker Heights. The public schools were terrific. The most enduring and useful skill I learned was how to write well, not in the handwriting sense but in the sense of being able to compose, of being able to logically organize and present my thoughts.

As a CPA, being able to write well is absolutely the key factor. Lots of people have technical skill. Not so many can communicate to explain the numbers and what they mean.

I'll bet that the ability to communicate is a top skill in the line of work of everyone who posts on this website.

Most people are going to say that of course cursive should be taught because they learned it, and that's how it should be.

When I really think about it, I can't see why cursive writing should be sucha priority. The only time I ever write in cursive is to sign my name. I'd really have to think about it to write anything else in cursive. I rarely read cursive because very few people write it anymore. All formal documents have to be in print, and of course, most things are typed. The only reason I've heard to teach it is so people can read historic documents. Is there any other reason?

I certainly agree with others that learning how to express thoughts and ideas in writing is something students need to do a lot better today. My wife teaches college English, largely to non-native speakers of English, but also to Americans at times. It blows me away how terrible college students are at writing. Sometimes it can be hard to differentiate the papers of the American students and the foreign students. Maybe time would be better spent teaching students how to articulate their thoughts in writing? I just don't see why cursive writing should be a priority.

Is there a sizable leap in these skills by learning cursive vs. learning to print? As I recall, we were taught to print then transitioned to cursive. Is the additional time learning cursive significant? Anyone have factual insight?

Agree with OCF.

As usual!

Although I haven't written any books, I did write an occasional board of contributors piece for the Messenger some time ago. Like Mike, I too did a much better job with pen and paper than I did with a keyboard.

Funniest post of the year, so far. :)

I wonder how romantic mates feel about a handwritten note vs one done on a computer or a purchased card?

Passing a note to someone for romantic or business or fun or other reason would seem to require some facility with cursive. Anyone who doesn't appreciate that, occasionally, passing a note spices life is missing some of the fun.

I musta missed knowing about that law.....

I just scribble a line on all the card machine windows - it always goes through....

Certainly those means are used a lot. But there's very little romance to that.

Wanna stand out? Hand write it.


What are the arguments for not teaching handwriting?

I found out that my nephew had been getting handwritten notes from my mother but had never read them because they do not teach cursive in GA. My mother asked him about it and he had been indoctrinated by their teachers teachers and stated "my teachers told us many times that we would never need cursive so there was no need to learn it" steadfastly maintaining his story. She bought him a copy of the Bill of Right and the Declaration to show him that it may be a good skill to have.

Fast forward to last year. I had a promising young athlete that I dug out a T Shirt from the 70s hoping to motivate him in an area that none of my kids pursued. I wrote him a note explaining the significance of the Shirt and the history. I told what I saw in him and his potential.....he took the note on the campus of DePauw....standing by the Bus and the Track he opened the card after gushing about the shirt and started to read it. He asked if I minded if his parents read it...i said "no there is nothing there I am not proud of" and he answered after a big pregnant pause...."I just can't read cursive" at which point I remembered he was from Georgia

My second son is an artist graduated from Herron Art who took a very strong stance on this talking about studies showing certain parts of the brain related to creativity and art never develope without cursive as part of the curriculum. He strongly supports keeping it as part of the learning process despite being born in the 90s as he has done extensive reading in his art forums on developement of artistic talent and creative thought related to the learning of longhand writing